Google Invests Massive $168M in BrightSource Solar Project

Google announced its largest investment in renewable energy to date: $168 million into one of the first utility-scale solar projects being built by startup BrightSource Energy in California’s Mojave Desert.

The size of the funding is impressive. To date, Google’s investments in solar and wind farms have been considerably smaller, including announcing last week that it would put €3.5 million ($5 million USD) into a solar photovoltaic farm in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, which is near Berlin. In May 2010, Google announced it planned to invest $38.8 million into 169.5 megawatts worth of wind projects developed by NextEra Energy Resources in North Dakota. And Google has made a variety of smaller equity investments into greentech startups over the past few years.

Google says with the BrightSource deal, its investments in clean power have now hit $250 million. Google launched its REC program back in 2007.

Source: Gigacom